Feng-GUI

Better User Experience Podcast #9: An Interview with Feng-GUI CEO Rafael Mizrahi

2012-01-25T13:18:00.001-08:00

by Ben Snyder

"A Better User Experience" (abetteruserexperience.com) website is a brilliant website with learning resources about: web usability, user testing, and building a better online user experience.

Here is an interview they had with Feng-GUI CEO, Rafael Mizrahi.

Listen to the interview at:
http://abetteruserexperience.com/2011/10/10/better-user-experience-podcast-9-an-interview-with-feng-gui-ceo-rafael-mizrahi/

DLD 2012 Conference

2012-01-17T05:56:00.000-08:00

For the 8th time, Burda’s digital summit gathers international agenda setters in Germany and discusses topics of the digital world. This time DLD12 will take place on January 22nd until 24th, 2012 at the HVB Forum in Munich

CEO Rafael Mizrahi will attend the DLD Conference from January 22-24 in Munich.

Feng-GUI partners SimilarSites.com

2011-12-24T02:53:00.000-08:00

SimilarSites.com Launches New Competitive Intelligence Features!

Tel Aviv, December 19, 2011 - After launching at the beginning of 2009, SimilarSites.com has been the leading place to find competitive and similar sites for any website around the web. Reaching millions of unique users per month, the company recently rolled out a major make over and added new features to deliver even better results. Visitors to the website can now use these tools for a variety of competitive intelligence analysis. Here is an overview of the new offerings:

Eye Tracking Heatmap

SimilarSites.com partnered with Feng-GUI, a visual analysis company, to incorporate their eye tracking simulation into the SimilarSites results. The new “Heatmap” tab shows a screen shot of a website’s homepage along with the corresponding color-coordinated image which predicts how a human eye views the website upon first arrival. Heatmaps for four similar websites are also shown which makes for easy competitive comparisons.

Knowing that on average, website owners only have 5 seconds to capture users attention, this technology enables webmasters to optimize the placement of content to maximize the chances of capturing users attention.

Enhanced Results

SimilarSites.com has made changes to its algorithm that deliver more targeted similar website recommendations. Websites are now characterized by specific tags, leading to a convenient browsing experience, ideal for competitive research. The “Also Visited” results, which SimilarSites.com is one of the few websites around the web that provides this service, delivers a list of 10 websites that a person who visits a website is also likely to visit. The results are calculated and show their corresponding Affinity Score, a measurement of the likelihood that someone is going to visit another specific website. Lastly, the Top Sites results have also been improved which show a birds eye view of up to 25 similar websites based on a related topic or category.

Keyword Density

Keyword Density measures how many times a specific word is used on a webpage in comparison to the total amount of text on that specific page. It can be used to gauge the quantity of specific content used in a website, which can play a major role in page rank and search positioning.

The revamped SimilarSites.com results calculate and show the keyword density for a website’s top 15 terms. With the click of a button, a user can find similar websites that also share Keyword Density for a specific word. The comparative feature can be used to understand which websites share similar keywords.

Overall, these improvements have made Similarsites a more resourceful tool for anyone doing competitive Internet research. Visit SimilarSites.com to see the new changes and start discovering similar websites today.

SEO ROI Beginner’s Guide To Remote Usability Testing

2011-12-04T01:45:00.000-08:00

The Beginner’s Guide To Remote Usability Testing: Increase Conversion In 30 Days With No Experience
by Gabriel Goldenberg, SEO ROI

Q: What is usability testing? What is remote usability testing?
A: Usability testing is the process of having people interact with a website and provide feedback on it. The purpose of this testing is to find out why users are using the site as they are.

The value in understanding why users behave a certain way is that you get actionable insight, which raw data on what users are doing doesn’t tell you. You can see what’s tripping up users and fix it!

read the full article at SEO ROI
http://seoroi.com/seo-roi-quality/beginners-guide-remote-usability-testing/

Feng-GUI Empower Designers to Make the World a Better Looking Place

2011-11-14T02:02:00.000-08:00

Designers and Advertisers are using Cutting Edge Copy-Testing Technology to Increase Visual Effectiveness

Feng-GUI, a pioneer in measuring visual effectiveness, today announced great new features and more affordable pricing for its attention analysis service. Feng-GUI simulates human vision and creates heatmaps based on an algorithm that predicts what a real human would be most likely to look at.

This offers designers, advertisers and creatives, a pre-testing and copy-testing tool that predicts performance of an image and video, by analyzing levels of attention, brand effectiveness and placement, as well as breaking down the flow of attention.

Feng-GUI has added Gaze Plot, Opacity and Areas of Interest (AOIs) reports to its Attention Analysis service which measures the performance of design in websites and advertisement. The Gaze Plot, Opacity and AOIs reports are familiar for those of you who are using eye-tracking. Having these reports within Feng-GUI Dashboard enhances the analysis possibilities and gives the designer more details about how the viewers perceive what they see.

"Feng-GUI service is now faster and cheaper than before," said Rafael Mizrahi, Feng-GUI CEO.
"The recent service update includes improvements to our IT systems and provides faster response time to Dashboard and Web API customers.
Feng-GUI systems are now more scalable and we want to share this success with you and let you use Feng-GUI even more, and under the same price.
Therefore, we have doubled the credits for all packages, reducing the price from $5 per image to $2.5 per image."

About Feng-GUI
Feng-GUI’s mission is to create technologies and services that empower designers and advertisers to effectively analyze attention and attraction in visuals.

Feng-GUI services are used by more than 600 clients around the world including global leaders such as: WSI, McCann Erickson and Publicis.
For more information, visit http://www.Feng-GUI.com

Feng-GUI presenting at DLD Tel Aviv 2011

2011-11-06T09:12:00.000-08:00

DLD (Digital - Life - Design) is a global conference network on innovation, digital media, science and culture. It connects business, creative and social leaders, opinion-formers and investors for crossover conversation and inspiration.

DLD Tel Aviv Summit is one of the events of Tel Aviv Festival.

DLD hosts were kind to invite Rafael Mizrahi, CEO at Feng-GUI to present at the following panels.

1 November
14:30 - 15:15 Brain Machine Interface
Moderated by:
Dr. Rafi Gidron - Chairman, Israel Brain Technologies; Former Co-Founder & Co-CEO, Precede and Chromatis
Discussion:
Rafael Mizrahi - GarageGeeks; CEO, Feng-GUI
Amnon Demri - Engineer and Entrepreneur
Prof. Nathan Intrator - Tel Aviv University
Imad Younis - President & CEO, Alpha Omega

Rafael Mizrahi presenting at Brain Machine Interface

Pick a StartUp - Showcasing Israeli Start-up companies at DLD festival
Out of all the digital Start-Up companies registered to this event, thirty companies will be randomly picked out to pitch its idea and will have the opportunity to give a 5 minute presentation each to to the audience which will include VC’s, Angels, leaders and executives of digital community.

Moderated by:
Vladimir (Vova) Soroka - Global Technology Unit (GTU) Leader, IBM
Commentators:
Yair Goldfinger - Co-founder & CEO, newCo; Co-founder, ICQ; Founder, Dotomi
Shimon Shocken - Computer Scientist Professor, IDC Herzliya
Stephanie Czerny - Managing Director, DLD Media & Ventures, Co-Founder DLD Conference
Marcel Reichart - Managing Director, DLD Media & Ventures, Co-Founder DLD

Feng-GUI presentation at Pick a StartUp

Feng-GUI presentation at Pick a StartUp

GarageGeeks and Yossi Vardi Meet the Industry Leaders at DLD Tel Aviv

In the DLD festival the GarageGeeks and Yossi Vardi will host "Meet the Industry Leaders" party.
We are inviting the entire entrepreneur community to meet with the leaders of the digital media industry.

This event will create a unique opportunity for leaders of the industry to connect with the next generation of leading entrepreneurs and potential business partners.
Moderated by Dr. Yossi Vardi – Co-Chairmen, DLD Tel Aviv Summit

* Christian Hernandez Gallardo – Director, Platform Partnerships EMEA, Facebook
* David Lawee – VP, Corporate Development, Google
* Dan Powers – Global VP Sales and Business Development, Amazon
* Dr. Hubert Burda – Co-Chairmen, DLD Tel Aviv Summit
* Haran Sold – Chief Strategy Officer, Alcatel-Lucent
* Arkady Volozh – Founder, Yandex
* Bhavneet Singh – Managing Director and Executive VP, MTV International

Rafael Mizrahi presenting at GarageGeeks party

Design Shack: mastering user attention with feng-gui

2011-11-06T08:24:00.000-08:00

Written by Joshua Johnson, Published On 1st November 2011.
Filed in Design Shack.

page layout is much more involved than merely arranging the elements in a way that looks pretty. It’s about willfully structuring a message and user experience that meets a set of established goals. Too often designers stick elements in wherever they seem to fit with zero thought as to how it might disrupt the flow of information on the page.

Tools like Feng-Gui are a huge help in your quest to learn to structure yohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifur designs in a logical and effective way.

continue reading at DesignShack:
mastering user attention with feng-gui

Bryan Eisenberg lists Feng-GUI as one of the 3 conversion optimization tools

2011-10-28T13:10:00.000-07:00

source: aimClear

Bryan Eisenberg ,conversion optimization guru, lists Feng-GUI, out of 150 tools, as one of the 3 conversion optimization tools he wouldn’t want to live without.
The other two tools are UserTesting.com and BoostCTR

Next month at Search Engine Strategies Chicago 2011, Bryan will take the stage on Day 1 to contribute his insightful two cents to the Conversion Tools of the Master Craftsman session.

Thanks! Bryan. We are flattered.

read the interview at aimClear blog

http://www.aimclearblog.com/2011/10/27/usability-tools-personas-speed-talkin-tactics-inside-the-brain-of-bryan-eisenberg/

Using Feng-GUI in Determining Your Website’s Critical Path

2011-10-06T05:01:00.000-07:00

Ben Snyder and Newman Lanier from Better User Experience blog, exploring Feng-GUI feedback during a redesign of a web page flow through a critical path towards higher conversions.

"What we were hoping to see was a visual narrative that made sense. In our original test, the gaze-plot was all over the place. Now that we’ve put the most important things out front and center, we should see the gaze-plot be a lot more orderly, an indication of understanding."

read the full article at
http://betteruserexperience.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/using-feng-gui-in-determining-your-websites-critical-path/

Homepage Design: The Tip To Top All Best Practices

2011-09-20T07:44:00.000-07:00

by SEO Roy

Mobile websites’ homepages beat the pants off regular websites’ homepage designs at achieving a homepage’s goal: driving the visitor deeper into the site.
Q: Why are the homepage designs of mobile sites so much more effective than the design of ordinary homepages?

A: The reduced space on mobile screens forces choices in what to display, and this is especially true on the homepage.

read more at
http://seoroi.com/seo-roi-quality/homepage-design-best-practices/

Infographics or Articles: Which Type of Content is Best for Your Idea?

2011-09-20T07:37:00.000-07:00

by Michael Erin Strong

Trusting your social experts is the key to success (if you’ve hired the right team, that is); but, how do you know that they’re right and not just opining blindly? Here is a simple guide to help you understand which content type is right for the topic or idea that’s been selected.

It is asymmetrical, either because objects are not on an invisible grid, or the balance is off. This can be fixed by pre-screening IGs with Feng Gui, and by using grid lines to align text and objects to invisible columns.

The $300 Million Button

2011-09-20T07:20:00.000-07:00

[While Luke Wroblewski was writing his well-received book, Web Form Design: Filling in the Blanks, he asked if I could think of an example where a change in a form's design made a noticeable difference in business. "You mean like $300 million of new revenue?" I responded. "Yes, like that." said Luke. So I wrote this article, which he published in his book.]

read How Changing a Button Increased a Site's Annual Revenues by $300 Million ?

Feng-GUI service v3.6 is faster and cheaper

2011-09-04T08:50:00.000-07:00

More great news, Feng-GUI service is now faster and cheaper than before.
The recent service update v3.6 includes improvements to our IT systems and provides faster response time to Dashboard and Web API customers.

Feng-GUI systems are now more scalable and we want to share this success with you and let you use Feng-GUI even more, and under the same price.

Therefore, we have doubled the credits for all packages, reducing the price from $5 per image to $2.5 per image.

Enjoy,
Feng-GUI Team

service maintenance 24th July

2011-07-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Customers and Users,

Please be informed that essential maintenance has been scheduled on the Feng-GUI services infrastructure on:
Sunday 24 July between 8.30 and 10.00 GMT+2.

During this time our Engineers will work to minimize any disruption to the Feng-GUI services, nevertheless please be aware that the planned maintenance is taking place.

This upgrade to version 3.6 includes:
* Setting the foundations for Subscription based packages.
* Handle browser post back refresh actions.
* Analyzing is disabled when credit finished and also expired.
* GetAccountInfo2 and GetAccountUsage removed, use the GetAccountInfo function
* Obsoleting more XML-RPC functionality. The support for XML-RPC is obsolete and will be removed by the end of the year. You have start migrating your code from XML-RPC to the SOAP API.

Best regards,
Feng-GUI Support

Send us your success story and receive a $100 value credits package

2011-07-14T01:29:00.000-07:00

We're always looking for good success stories about how Feng-GUI attention
analysis helps you to increase web page conversions and more engaging
advertisements.

Send us your success story and receive a $100 value credits package.

Example ideas for stories:

Web page conversion optimization.
Advertisements and Brand effectiveness.
Design web page layout and click to action elements.
Composition of an advertisement.
Other ...

Your story should include the following:

Story must be at least 200 words.
Graphics of the design, before and after.
Full name and your Feng-GUI user name.

All stories are due by: 8/15/2011
Send us your story with the required information to: sales at feng-gui

You will be notified of acceptance via email within two weeks of receipt of
submission.
If your story is accepted and published online at www.feng-gui.com, you will
receive a $100 credit package from Feng-GUI

NOTICE: By submitting showcase materials, you grant Feng-GUI a nonexclusive,
worldwide, royalty-free right to use, copy, reproduce, modify, redistribute,
and publicly display and perform those materials on any media or in any
medium of communication now known or later developed for any purpose.

GarageGeeks and Yossi Vardi hosting Stanley Fischer,Sir Ronald Cohen,David Fischer,Tom Rogers,Robert Stephens,Martin Varsavsky and Jimmy Wales

2011-06-21T06:54:00.001-07:00

In our series “Meet the Industry Leaders”, Yossi Vardi and the GarageGeeks, in cooperation with DLD, invite you to a special session with:

Stanley Fischer, the Governor of the Bank of Israel
Sir Ronald Cohen, Founder of Apax
David Fischer, VP of Advertising and Global Operations at Facebook
Tom Rogers, President and CEO of TiVo
Robert Stephens, CTO of Best Buy and founder of The Geek Squad
Martin Varsavsky, Founder of Fon
Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikimedia

Professor Stanley Fischer has been Governor of the Bank of Israel since May 2005. On May 1, 2010, Prof. Fischer was nominated Governor for a second term. Prior to joining the Bank of Israel, Prof. Fischer was Vice Chairman of Citigroup from February 2002 through April 2005. From 1994 to 2001 he was First Deputy Managing Director (the number 2 position) of the IMF. From 1973 to 1994 he was Professor of Economics in the MIT Department of Economics.

Sir Ronald Cohen is a pioneer of the UK venture capital industry, having co-founded Apax Partners in 1972, which went on to become the largest private equity firm in Europe. He was a founder, director and chairman of the British Venture Capital Association and a founder director of the European Venture Capital Association. He is also prominent in the social sector, as chair of the UK Social Investment Task Force and the Commission on Unclaimed Assets, as a donor and as founder of Bridges Ventures and the Portland Trust.

David Fischer is the VP of Advertising and Global Operations at Facebook and oversees sales, advertiser marketing, and customer operations throughout the world. He joined Facebook after over seven years at Google, where he was VP of Global Online Sales and Operations and was responsible for Google’s online sales channel, which represents the majority of Google’s customers worldwide. In that role, he helped build Google’s online advertising network into the largest in the world.

Tom Rogers is the President and CEO of TiVo Inc., the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVR). He holds this position since 2005. Before TiVo, Rogers was Chairman and CEO of PRIMEDIA Inc., which then was the leading targeted media company in the United States. Previously, Rogers was President of NBC Cable and EVP of NBC, as well as NBC’s chief strategist and founder of the leading news channel CNBC.

Robert Stephens is the CTO of Best Buy and founder of The Geek Squad. In April 1994, after 3 years of building flight and driving simulators at the Human Factors Research Laboratory of the University of Minnesota, he formed The Geek Squad with $200. In 2002, The Geek Squad acquired Best Buy and opened Geek Squad precincts in all Best Buy US and Canadian stores. Now, with over 25,000 Agents, The Geek Squad is now the world’s largest technology support company.

Martin Varsavsky is the founder and CEO of FON, the largest WiFi network in the world with over 4 million hotspots. Martin is an Argentine entrepreneur and philanthropist who founded highly successful companies such as Viatel, Jazztel and Ya.com. Martin also teaches at the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, Spain and is President and Founder of The Varsavsky Foundation and the Safe-Democracy Foundation, and was Ambassador-at-Large of Argentina up to 2005.

Jimmy Wales is an Internet entrepreneur and wiki enthusiast, and founder of the Wikipedia project. In 1999, Jimmy had the concept of a freely distributable encyclopedia and founded Nupedia, by hiring philosopher Larry Sanger as editor-in-chief and assigning two programmers to write software for it. After two years of working with the Nupedia concept, that team opened Wikipedia to help channel content into Nupedia; Wikipedia became an instant success, but not in the envisioned way, and Nupedia was shut down. In 2003, Jimmy set up the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization, to support Wikipedia and its sister projects.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
The event will take place on: Thursday, June 23rd, 20:30 at GarageGeeks HQ, HaPeled 40, Holon
* This is a User Generated Dinner, so, bring some snacks and drinks to share with others.
* This event is also sponsored by DLD
* GarageGeeks is sponsored by Carmel Ventures and Gemini Israel Funds

facebook event http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=107079019384894

Sizzle Up Your Webpages: 7 Ways to Draw a Heat Map for Your Site

2011-05-24T01:43:00.000-07:00

by http://www.link-assistant.com

All in all, heat maps help you locate hot spots on a webpage to stick an affiliate link, put up a banner or break your special offer. Also, click maps are normally quite precise and may provide valuable insight, for example - what particular word in your anchor text people normally click on, what part of your body text or image people mistake for a link, etc. In this post, we will dwell on some general rules that apply to heat maps and how you can create a heat map for your own website.

Read more at Link-Assistant.Com SEO Blog

Online Assessment Tools Electronics Marketers Can Use to See How Their Website Measures Up

2011-05-24T01:39:00.000-07:00

Want to know how your website stacks up against your competitors?

Your website is the center of your online marketing activity. You spend a lot of effort driving people to it and measuring the Impressions, Clicks and Page Views resulting from your demand generation; but what about the site itself? Its design impacts user perception, conversions and search engine rankings. Today we give you some easy ways to measure how well your site design is holding up — and how it compares with your competitor's design.

continue reading at Supply Frame Media website

Power of Relevancy: The Biometric Impact of Online Advertising

2011-05-24T01:33:00.000-07:00

via advertising.yahoo.com

Using biometric and eye-tracking measures, Yahoo! unveiled surprising results about consumers' non-conscious reactions to online display advertising across different targeting techniques.

read more at
http://advertising.yahoo.com/industry-knowledge/power-of-relevancy-insight.html

Mind Controlling the Angry Birds game

2011-03-28T06:32:00.000-07:00

Using emotiv neuro-headset to control the Angry Birds game.
Mapping mouse movement and mouse left button click using emotive EmoKey KeyMap and GlovePIE.
Project members: Rafael Mizrahi, Anat Sambol

http://www.feng-gui.com/research/MindControlAngryBirds/

60 LEDs Guitar

2011-03-01T03:07:00.000-08:00

A Guitar which light LEDs to instruct you which string to fret and where to place your fingers.
The guitar was built during a 36 hours weekend at GeekCon conference.
Project members: Rafael Mizrahi, Yuval Sapir, Eitan Shefer

project page at :
http://www.feng-gui.com/research/60LEDGuitar/index.htm

DejanSEO: Conversion Optimization With Predictive Heatmaps

2011-01-17T04:22:00.001-08:00

David Iwanow (The Lost Agency) & Dan Petrovic (DejanSEO) Conversion Optimization session using Feng-GUI predictive attention heatmaps.

Watch the the session at http://dejanseo.com.au/conversion-optimisation-with-predictive-heatmaps/

Conversion Workshop: EyeTracking, Heat Maps and Visual Clarity, Oh My!

2011-01-17T03:50:00.000-08:00

Bryan Eisenberg is hosting a MarketMotive webinar on January 18th, EyeTracking, Heat Maps and Visual Clarity, Oh My!
You can register for free.
We will take volunteer websites or landing pages, run a heat map analysis on them and provide feedback at the end of the webinar. Register now to get your page analyzed.

http://www.marketmotive.com/training/tutorials/conference-calls-and-workshops/conversion-workshop-eyetracking-heat-maps-and-visual-clarity-oh-my.html

How to Prove That Your Designer Is Costing You Money

2011-01-14T08:49:00.000-08:00

Bryan Eisenberg share a simple technique and how to use attention mapping software like Feng-GUI.com to prove to your designer that they are costing you money.

Attention mapping software uses software algorithms to create heat maps based on how people would engage with your Web page or ad within the first five seconds of interaction. Of course these tools aren't perfect as they can't predict what is driving a person's motivation but from a pure design perspective you can see if you are in the right direction or not.

Read the article and video at bryan eisenberg website
http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/2011/01/how-to-prove-that-your-designer-is-costing-you-money-video/

Read the article and video at ClickZ
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1936030/prove-designer-costing-money-video

Update Your Reality at DLD11 conference

2011-01-10T04:14:00.000-08:00

This is our second time heading to DLD 2011 conference at Munich and we couldn’t be more excited. If you're planning on attending DLD11 or you just happen to be in Munich and would like to meet up with us, please make sure you drop us a line at to let us know.

The DLD (Digital Life Design) Conference will be taking place for the seventh time in Munich from 23 to 25 January. With 40 panels and keynotes, speakers will discuss the effects of digitization on society, culture, the economy, and life. Invited are about 800 creatives and masterminds from media, society, technology and arts. On Sunday afternoon Maria Furtwängler will honour a creative and successful businesswoman and award her with the annual Aenne Burda Award for Creative Leadership.

Extract from the speakers' list

DIGITAL:
Numerous leading companies and successful start-ups will attend DLD 2011. Amongst them are Andrew Mason (Groupon), Nathalie Massenet (Net-a-Porter), Marc Benioff (Salesforce), Dennis Crowley (Foursquare), Facebook Co-Founders Sean Parker und Chris Hughes, Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn), Publisher Arthur Sulzberger (New York Times) und James Murdoch (News Corporation), Nikesh Arora (Google), Randi Zuckerberg und Dan Rose (Facebook), Padmasree Warrior, (Cisco), Jim Breyer (Accel), Werner Vogels (Amazon), Designer Claude Zellweger (HTC), Jason Calacanis (Mahalo), Lars Hinrichs, Michael Arrington (TechCrunch), Esther Dyson (Edventures), Beth Comstock (CMO GE), Stefan Glänzer (Angel Investor), Barry Silbert (Second Market), Susanne Klöß (Accenture) und Pete Cashmore (Mashable).

LIFE:
The list ranges from scientists, authors and human rights activists to music-managers. Among those are: Kevin Kelly (author of “What Technology Wants”), Professor of computer science David Gelernter, Eric Anderson (Space Adventures), Troy Carter (Manager Lady Gaga), as well as human rights activist Somaly Mam, Hubert Burda (Iconic Turn), Maria Furtwaengler (Actress), Juan Enriquez (Life Science Project), Deepak Chopra (Spiritual Leader) und David Agus (Navigenics).

DESIGN:
In 2011 artist, designer and architects will once again round up DLD. Including artist Olafur Eliasson, Hans-Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine Gallery), Bill Gross (Idealab), Bjarke Ingels (BIG) and Tino Sehgal (artist).

The event will be chaired by the Israeli investor Yossi Vardi and the publisher Hubert Burda and is taking place at the HypoVereinsbank Forum in Munich. The founders of the conference are Steffi Czerny and Dr. Marcel Reichart who established DLD in 2005.

DLD cooperates with numerous innovative companies like Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, HP, Ernst & Young, Sky, Telefonica O2, Lufthansa, Booz &Co and Deutsche Telekom.

Feng-GUI Dashboard v3 released

2010-11-26T00:25:00.001-08:00

Feng-GUI has added Gaze Plot, Opacity and Areas of Interest (AOIs) reports to its Attention Analysis service which measures the performance of design in websites and advertisement.
The Gaze Plot, Opacity and AOIs reports are familiar for those of you who are using eye-tracking.
Having these reports within Feng-GUI Dashboard enhances the analysis possibilities and gives the designer more details about how the viewers perceive what they see.

Feng-GUI Dashboard version 3

Feng-GUI simulates human vision during the first 5 seconds of exposure to visuals. It creates heatmaps based on an algorithm that predicts what a real human would be most likely to look at. This offers designers, advertisers and creatives, a Pre-testing technology that predicts performance of an image, by analyzing levels of attention, brand effectiveness and placement, as well as breaking down the flow of attention.

Feng-GUI Attention Heatmap report

The Gaze Plot report visualizes the scan paths and order between elements inside the image. A Gaze Plot report is also referred as scanpath report.
It is made of a series of short stops (called fixations) and fast movements of an eye (called saccades).

Fixations are marked with circles along with a number that state the order in which the eyes move between fixations.
The first fixation is marked with the number 1. The time between fixations is about 300 milliseconds (ms).

Use the Gaze Plot report to visually demonstrate fixations order and gaze paths.

Feng-GUI Gaze Plot report

The Opacity map report tones down information that is not attractive and visually displays what your viewers may perceive during the first few seconds of visual inspection.
The most transparent areas are those that attract more attention.
Use the Opacity report to identify which areas are being perceived and which are being ignored.

Feng-GUI Opacity Map report

The Areas of Interest report (AOIs) lets you define areas inside the image and determine the percentage of the attention this area is drawing.
Areas of Interest report is also referred as Regions of Interest report (ROIs)

Feng-GUI Areas of Interest AOIs report

Use the Areas of Interest tool to compare results between different versions of your design and layout.

Areas of Interest AOIs tool

The price of usability testing and eye tracking is high and many advertisers, agencies and media companies are not willing to spend that amount of money, per ad or per web page. Designers need to perform a guesswork decisions during the creative process.

Using Feng-GUI attention analysis, designers realize which areas of the webpage, photo or advertisement gets most of the attention.
The reports helps to optimize the layout of a webpage, along with its buttons and banners and identify weak spots within an ad and improve its performance.

The 6 Secrets Of Eye-Tracking

2010-11-25T02:20:00.000-08:00

"if we take print ads as an example, you've got 1.7 seconds of average viewing time, per reader."

Here are some suggestions drawn from a half-decade of experience using eye-tracking machines to learn what will best capture people's attention:

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=137686

Eye-Tracking & Conversion – A Match Made in Heaven?

2010-10-22T01:53:00.000-07:00

Online eye-tracking studies have been used for years as an indicator of user interest in certain areas on a page measured by the point-of-gaze. At its most basic eye-tracking studies are interested in which elements on a page are responsible for garnering the most attention as measured by ‘looks’, ‘gazes’ or ‘views’.

As a stand-alone practice in the online world, eye-tracking studies are relatively useless for a number of reasons.

read more about the pitfalls of eye-tracking studies:
http://seminsights.com/ecommerce/eyetracking-conversion-messaging

Eyetracking: Is It Worth It?

2010-09-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

Feng-GUI Attention analysis can serve you as a cost effective alternative to eye-tracking.
Of course, there are pros and cons for using eye-tracking.

Here are some good articles about eye-tracking and the pitfalls you need to be aware of:

Eyetracking: Is It Worth It?

The price of eye tracking

shocking-revelation-eye-tracking-problems

Eye Tracking and Web Usability: A Good Fit?

What is Eye-Tracking Good For?

How-Our-Brain-Finds-Waldo

GarageGeeks and Yossi Vardi hosting Marissa Mayer, Google

2010-06-25T01:07:00.000-07:00

in the series "meet the Industry leaders", the GarageGeeks and Yossi Vardi invite you to a special garage event, to meet:

Marissa Mayer, Google Vice President, Search Products & User Experience

Greetings: Yossi Matias, Director of Israel R&D Center, Google

The event will take place on:
Tuesday, June 29, 20:30 at GarageGeeks HQ, HaPeled 40, Holon

* This is a User Generated Dinner, so, bring some snacks and drinks to share with others.

RSVP at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=127304100638491

Rafael Mizrahi and Marissa Mayer at GarageGeeks

Marissa Mayer sign the GarageGeeks wall

Google Powers Awesome Iron Man Flight Simulator

2010-05-20T12:11:00.000-07:00

article via businessinsider

A team of virtual reality enthusiasts working in Israel has built a simulator that recreates the experience of flying in the Iron Man suit.

Via the Google Earth Blog, the system is built around the Google Earth Flight Simulator, which lets you fly around Google's 3D representation of the world. This program is fed into a set of virtual reality goggles, controlled by a motion-sensitive Nintendo WiiMote attached to the wing off of an unmanned aerial vehicle -- that is, a drone. The user is strapped to the wing and a propeller, and the whole rig is suspended in the air by a small crane.

It's very weird, way too elaborate, and incredibly awesome.

Enjoy:

President Shimon Peres meets the GarageGeeks

2010-03-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

Israeli President Shimon Peres visited the city of Holon.
The president was meeting with high school students, visited the "Invitation to Silence" exhibition at the Childrens Museum, and met the GarageGeeks and Dr. Yossi Vardi at the MediaTheque .
GarageGeeks member and Feng-GUI CEO, Rafael Mizrahi, presented to the president's staff about of the underground high-tech scene and creative activities in Holon and Israel.

BirdBrain 2010 unConference

2010-02-22T12:20:00.000-08:00

Come and spread your wings at Afeka Tel Aviv College of Engineering
March 2nd, with Jeff Pulver, Yossi Vardi and friends (you)!

You are hereby invited to join us for two co-joined special events:

08:30-10:00 the traditional Jeff Pulver Networking Breakfast - Signup here
10:30-15:00 "Bird Brain 2010" an Un-Conference about Creative Passion

Feng-GUI CEO, Rafael Mizrahi, will be presenting at:
10:50-11:00 Innovative Thinking - Inside the Box

BirdBrain is organized by Mel Rosenberg, Noam Fine, Yossi Vardi, Sharon Ariel and Afeka College, with the guidance of Yossi Vardi.

perception map report

2010-01-31T06:48:00.000-08:00

The Dashboard 2.5 includes a new report: Perception map.
Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory information.
The Perception map visually displays what your viewers may perceive during the first few seconds of visual inspection.

enjoy,
The Feng-GUI team

Feng-GUI version 2.5

2010-01-12T11:17:00.000-08:00

What’s New in Feng-GUI 2.5

Dashboard usability enhancements
* Login persistence.
* Feature analysis is merged into a single option.
* Recent thumbnails bottom carousel increased from 10 to 20 images.
* Dashboard heatmap is done on the same image and not creating a new image at the carousel.

Analysis improvements
* Performance improvements at Dashboard and at Web API Service.
* Text Detection.
* Face detection of frontal and profile.
* New Report: Perception Heatmap.

General
* Free version enables you to generate a free heatmap every 12 hours.
* Price range changed into 5 USD per image to 2.5 USD per image.

IMAGinE 2010

2009-12-20T13:19:00.000-08:00

We are happy to invite you to IMAGinE (read: Imagine in IMAGE),
an informal, non-commercial gathering of like-minded people in the fields of animation, computer vision, 3D graphics, image processing, visualizations, augmented reality, video and photography.

IMAGinE is one of the unconference events initiated and inspired by Yossi Vardi, which include Kinnernet, GeekCon and MuseNet. As an unconference, the content is created by the event participants, so we depend on YOU to propose discussions, workshops, project displays and any crazy mash-up that comes to mind and can drive technologists and creative types to innovate, learn and inspire.

IMAGinE 2010 will be held on Friday, January 8^th 2010, at the Tiltan College of Design in Haifa.

The event wiki is located at http://imagine2010.pbworks.com, and registration is at http://imagine2010.eventbrite.com.

facebook event at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=210873607370

See you there!

The IMAGinE organizing team: Dror Gill, Liad Nishlis, Erez Yissacharov and Yossi Vardi.

Yet Another Tron Custome

2009-11-04T01:50:00.000-08:00

Yes, there are few more geeks who made a Tron costume,
but none of them built a frisbee controller and played the arcade game Discs Of Tron.

More info and pictures at the Tron costume project page

MakeUseOf.com review

2009-10-28T01:52:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what your subscribers are seeing when they come to your website or blog? Feng-GUI predicts what a human mind would look at within 5 seconds of looking at a web page and generates visual heatmap. This is the perfect way to tell what your readers are watching and what is grabbing their attention.

read the full review at

http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/feng-gui-visual-heatmap/

MakeUseOf also listed Feng-GUI at cool websites and tools

Moving to Chicago on November 1st

2009-10-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

At 1st of November we are migrating the Feng-GUI Web Service to Chicago.
Our neighbors at the Data Center are PHP, YouSendIt and Ars Technica.

Dear Customer,

Please be informed that essential maintenance has been scheduled on the Feng-GUI services infrastructure on:
Sunday 1st November between 8.00 and 10.00 GMT+2.

During this time our Engineers will work to minimize any disruption to the Feng-GUI services, nevertheless please be aware that the planned maintenance is taking place.

Best regards,
Feng-GUI Support

Service Level Agreement published

2009-09-09T04:16:00.000-07:00

The Feng-GUI Service Level Agreement published.
The agreement guarantees 99.9 percent availability of the service within a region over a trailing 30-day period. If Feng-GUI Services fails during that time, or doesn't meet the agreement, businesses get credit back.

"... the Feng-GUI Covered Services web interface will be operational and available to Customer at least 99.9% of the time in any calendar month (the "Feng-GUI SLA"). If Feng-GUI does not meet the Feng-GUI SLA, and if Customer meets its obligations under this Feng-GUI SLA, Customer will be eligible to receive the Service Credits described below."

"If the Monthly Uptime Percentage applicable to the month of such request is confirmed by us and is less than 99.9%, then we will issue the Service Credit to you within one billing cycle following the month in which the error occurred."

here is an example of an email sent from Feng-GUI support to a customer, with a credit back notification.

Whats new in Dashboard V2?

2009-08-09T13:29:00.000-07:00

14th July 2009, Feng-GUI Dashboard V2 released.
here's some information on what's new in this release.

Loading time is 5 times faster.
The most recent generated images are presented in small thumbnails. These small images makes the page load 5 times faster.

Face and Skin detection
Increasing the accuracy of the attention heatmap by adding frontal and profile face detection along with skin hue detection.
Eye-tracking researches has proven that during the first half of a second we are attracted to faces found within the image.

Customized output layers
Choose which information to include at the output attention heatmap.

Transparent credit system
You can see how many credit you have at the Account Settings tab.

You only pay per image upload
We separated the upload and the heatmap into two actions.
Previously, if you wanted to test the same input image using different analysis parameters, you had to upload the same image every time you generate a heatmap.
Now, you are required to upload the input image only once, and for that image, you can generate as much heatmaps as you want.

And there’s another good thing for the Dashboard customers. You are charged only for the upload action, and
not for the heatmap action.
Notice, This does not apply to Web API users.
So this is how it goes. Click on ”Browse” button, to select an image file from your computer. Click the “Upload” button to upload it to the server.
Now, select the desired image from the thumbnails filmstrip at the bottom of the page, and click “Heatmap”.
This way, you can change the Analysis parameters and generate as much heatmaps without upload the image each time.

Next Generation Digital Media Survival Kit

2009-07-11T14:10:00.000-07:00

Following the Innovation Summit at Berlin, Wolf Siegert Ph.D. from IRIS Media (http://www.iris-media.com/) came to Israel looking for the Next Generation Digital Media Survival Kit. Wolf was interviewing for 3 days various New Media companies including Feng-GUI

Here is part of his report auto translated from German to English

This Sunday is - in Israel - a working day.
The theme - Next Generation Digital Media Survival Kit - this was three days on the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute in Tel Aviv as follows in his "follower" by electronic bulletin announced:
One of the founders of this GarageGeeks - concept was already the day before the host of the Export Institute - now he is host.

His name Rafael Mizrahi shortened in speech-friendly on "Rafi, the job of the author is on the" changineers "and it will be shortened by" Rafi "with a very special welcome honors:
The particular pleasure of this meeting is in the fact that AOL's launch at the IFA in Berlin, the mid-90s in collaboration with the invitations took place today, and today - even the AOL brand - to the Telecom Italia was sold.
In advance of the event allowed Rafi, at the end of the room and settle the computer presentation.

Evening, half of new, suddenly met a big crowd of people and could be increased before this small work table.
And then began a lot of laughter during miscellaneous presentation of all sorts of nonsense, its deeper meaning is often not until the opening statements.
Around the bicycle with a motor, which does nothing more than to make noise and the environment to "contaminate".

Or snail mail to deal with CD-Rom wheels move attempt (even a "Snail mail" is nimble on the other hand ...)

After the exclusive presentation in the backyard Grage, participants gathered in the backyard and listened to Tim Armstrong keynotes.

Master Geeks Hagai and Mel

2009-05-27T22:58:00.000-07:00

Hagai Cohen and prof. Mel Rosenberg are true master geeks.
Check out their two projects A compressor flute organ and a land skiing vehicle.
These guys are old school hard core! A true inspiration for us; the next generation.

Feng-GUI maintenance 24th May

2009-05-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

Dear Customers and Users,

Please be informed that essential maintenance has been scheduled on the Feng-GUI services infrastructure on:
Sunday 24th May between 8.00 and 10.00 GMT+2.

During this time our Engineers will work to minimize any disruption to the Feng-GUI services, nevertheless please be aware that the planned maintenance is taking place.

This upgrade includes:
* Enhancing the Dashboard usability.
* Adding User and Account APIs to the Web Services.

Best regards,
Feng-GUI Support

Put your ear on the View Finder

2009-05-17T03:49:00.000-07:00

Alexey Klimov (Алексей Климов) , photography expert and researcher, is using Feng-GUI to identify aesthetics in Synaesthesia photos, taken “from his ear” !

Feng-GUI have kindly given me possibility to analyze my exhibition photos.
I have use Feng-GUI to automatically search for pictures who most pleased the viewers. Almost all from them have shown a similar arrangement of zones of attention (hetamap). Thus, that the photographer style can be calculated without the aid of man-critics.

Synaesthesia - for some people letters are colored, numbers have a personality and when they hear music they see colourful images.
Synaesthesia explained at BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7545888.stm

"I have started to photograph when I was eight-year old. It was the time of a black-and-white film and a house “red room” photo laboratory.
Since then I make at least one shot daily. I have read many books of known photo masters. I studied at art school.
But I have chosen other trade. The photo became my hobbies. Surprisingly, but my academic classical photos bored the viewers.

All has changed, when my wife has presented to me a mobile phone with the built in camera.
I began to photograph "from an ear" during telephone conversations. I aimed on hearing. Sight and all academic knowledge had a rest during such photographing. The man gets used to all. In three years I consider it natural to put the view-finder not my an eye, but to my ear. From hundred shots one turns out adequately. Such perfect shots it was typed on the whole photo-exhibition.”

Alexey Klimov Synaesthesia exhibition photos
http://www.foto3x4.narod.ru/Sinestes.html
http://foto3x4.narod.ru/Muzey.html

Today I have developed ability "to photograph from an ear" to level of regular " view-finder photographing". Viewers began to speak about photographer's style. Experts began to speak about mixture of feelings (Synesthesia). The doctor of neurosurgery marks effect of dreams: when our eyes are closed we have dreams, just like babies. After all, when we dream, hearing is not blocked as sight.

Unexpectedly, I have found out Feng-GUI which helps me to automatically analyze my photos. Using Feng-GUI I have found a way to select the photos which most please the viewers. Now my Feng-GUI tested photos are printed in several Russian magazines. Photos which I take "from the ear" began to be attractive.

We like to see ourselves in group photo. If we don't find out ourselves in a photo then we value it as a documentary or art one.
When we see people in photo, the first thing that comes to our mind is 'Do I know them?' and the second is 'Who are they?'
The city life has accustomed us to see thousand strangers every day.
Our brain doesn’t store flashing persons in long–term memory to protect itself against overload.
And this habit is transferred also to taking photo.
Moreover, we distinguish people in our dreams on familiar or strangers, though we can’t remember their features and details after waking up.
For one thing, could you describe their ears, nose, eyes and lips if it was required to make an identikit for criminal investigation? :)

And still most of us, while having got a city intelligent habit 'don’t examine', 'don’t stare at stranger' and so on, remained wild animals in a our souls, and we expect everything of each stranger.
That’s why we learned to monitor life space about us by off–center vision, and using hearing and tactile perception in transport.
So how we can portray this point of view in photo?
Right in this manner, off–center vision–like.
You have to construct a shot so that the spectator didn’t look at an unfamiliar portrait, and was mown, intuitively listened, or even sniffed it.
So he didn’t stare at the person, like he’s looking at a monkey behind glass.
And the mathematics, 'queen of all sciences', allows to make it.

The first impression of a man is the strongest.
It is a wonder why nature and society together have developed this special first glance for creating a first impression of a stranger.
We do not stare straight at a person at the first encounter (unless we work in an HR department).
However, quick glances at the face, peripheral, panoramic view of a stranger's position in the interior, the elevated attention to information from all our senses — this is what provides the very first impression.
How to convey the first impression with a photo?
Especially, if the model is in fact well familiar to you?
The viewer does not have the intuitive barriers against staring at the monitor or the pages of a photo album.
The viewer can shamelessly eye a stranger's photo, feeling secure.

How to convey to the viewer the anxiety that he would experience if he met in person the man in the photo?

About the author
Alexey Klimov, a resident of the city of Oryol, is the author of over fifty publications on digital photography in magazines “Computerra”, "Home Computer" and “Hard and Soft”. Candidate of technical sciences, associate professor, Ph.D at Oryol State Technical University
http://www.computerra.ru/Authors/793/offline.html
http://www.computerra.ru/magazine/357229/

JSON joins the services supported formats

2009-04-30T14:11:00.000-07:00

This one is for you AJAX lovers out there.
Feng-GUI web services now supports JSON (JavaScript Object Notation).

You may find the JSON end point at http://service.feng-gui.com/json/api.ashx

Note: Only registered customers can access the web services.

Lost in Conversion?

2009-02-26T10:20:00.000-08:00

Lost in Conversion? Unleash the power of web analytics to improve conversion rates.

Web analytics and conversion optimization is probably the biggest untapped opportunity within online marketing, particularly in a time of economic downturn.

Within this GarageGeeks session, you be exposed to best practices and new developments in measurability, user behavior analysis and proven conversion rate tactics.

Conversion is the New Black!
Itai Levitan, Co-CEO and Daniel Waisberg, Head of Web Analytics, easynet search marketing http://www.easynet.co.il

Google Analytics & Website Optimizer an Overview
Nir Bar-Lev, Head of Analysis Products, EMEA at Google

From Porn to AI in 20 slides.
Rafael Mizrahi, http://www.Feng-GUI.com

Reveal the mystery of what visitors are doing inside your webpage
Dr. Tal Schwartz, Founder and CEO, ClickTale
http://www.clicktale.com

NuConomy - next generation personalization and advertising platform based on advanced user level Analytics.
http://www.NuConomy.com

Session Summary
Itai Levitan of easynet search marketing.

- Mingle and Mangal

The event will take place on Thursday, March 12th, 20:00, at the GarageGeeks HQ (Hapeled 40, Holon).

Digital Innovators Summit

2009-02-05T14:01:00.000-08:00

Feng-GUI is invited by the 'New Media' Sector at the Israel Export Institute to present at the Digital Innovators Summit, Berlin.
We will be presenting at the "Innovative Companies: Analytics and Ad Management" Panel, with Microsoft Advertising and ClickTale.

VDZ, the Association of German Magazine Publishers, along with
www.emediasf.com and CeBIT are hosting the "Digital Innovators Summit" which bring together dynamic companies to present their digital media concepts and offerings.
The conference will be held on March 3-4, 2009 at the Deutsche Telekom Conference Center, Franzo"sische Strase 33a-c, 10117 Berlin, Germany.

Feng-GUI welcome the "Digital Innovators Summit" participants.
You can access the Dashboard using the Feng-GUI XNIP-Code (as username/password) found at the summit program.

January 2009 reviews

2009-01-29T01:46:00.000-08:00

Feng-GUI reviews: January 2009

The Acagamic - Top Ten Eye Tracking Blogs

Er. Krushna Chandra Muni15 must have web developer tools for beginners

Michaela Cernescu, Website design – Find out if your Website is meeting its usability requirements

Red Spider - What do visitors see when they come to your website?

CoolCreation - Cheap Website Design

My SEO Books blog http://myseobooks.com/2009/01/09/a-simulator-eye-tracking-to-test-its-interfaces-2/
http://myseobooks.com/2009/01/09/interview-with-rafael-mizrahi-feng-gui/

Real Virtual Skater project at

Engadget, MAKE Magazine and UberGizmo

Real Virtual Skater

2009-01-20T07:54:00.000-08:00

Another release is behind us, so this is time for some geeky stuff.
We took a real skateboard and converted it into a game controller .
Taking a real skateboard + a Wii remote and using it to control and "ride" the game "Tony Hawk Pro Skater" (THPS)

http://www.feng-gui.com/thps/

more projects at the projects page
http://www.feng-gui.com/research.htm

Slip me some skin, Bro!

2009-01-08T11:23:00.000-08:00

Feng-GUI free attention heatmap service now includes skin detection.
Skin and Face detection have an important role in human visual attention.
It was already demonstrated in eye tracking sessions that face and skin are the first and the second spots that people tends to look at.

Checking “skin detection” will employ a combination of skin models and statistics to identify skin hue color in your image.

Do not use it unless you know that there is skin in the image.

original image

attention heatmap with no skin detection

attention heatmap with skin detection

Feng-GUI attention heatmap accuracy

2009-01-05T01:24:00.000-08:00

We’ve been asked several times about the accuracy of Feng-GUI attention heatmap and why is it not reaching 100%.
Feng-GUI attention heatmap algorithm, which we call the ViewFinder , is a composition of algorithms aggregating over 30 years of research. Research from the fields of neuro-science studies, visual attention, statistics of eye-tracking sessions, perception and cognition of humans.
We improve the ViewFinder algorithm in order to achieve the highest accuracy, but is it possible to get to 100% ?

Let us answer by asking a question:
How accurate is the "Magic Wand" in Photoshop? (also referred as the “Fuzzy select” in Gimp)

The Magic Wand tool is designed to select areas of the image by finding edges of image segments.

Part of the answer to accuracy can be found at the "image segmentation and boundary detection" benchmark conducted by Berkley.
It’s a 1000 photos test suite for algorithms that try to find the boundaries of elements inside pictures.
In the test suite results you can see how real people and computer algorithms, marked the boundaries of segments inside photos and how accurate they are.
The current score is:
Real people: 79%
Machines algorithms: 70%

original image

edge detection algorithm

edge detection by human

http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Research/Projects/CS/vision/grouping/segbench/
results:
http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Research/Projects/CS/vision/grouping/segbench/bench/html/algorithms.html

You can see that edge detection algorithms are not 100% accurate and will never be considering the hardware used be personal computers.
To solve this limitation, GIMP supports six different selection tools. In order of appearance in the tool box they are: rectangle, ellipse, free, fuzzy, bezier, and intelligent.
Each tool has its advantages and disadvantages--no one tool is clearly superior to the others. In general, a combination of tools proves to be the optimal strategy for complex selection tasks.

We conducted a comparison benchmark between Feng-GUI results and eye-tracking results of 40 people, 90 images, 15 seconds per image.
http://www.feng-gui.com/faq.htm#quality
Comparing the regions of interests (ROI) in the images, results with more than 70% of similarities.
If you compare Feng-GUI results to random groups of 10 people (out of the 40 people), for 5 seconds, the similarities go over 80%.

To enable designers and advertisers integrate Feng-GUI’s attention heatmap into their work process, we keep on improving the ViewFinder algorithm while maintaining two important requirements: Accuracy as well as Speed.

happy new year!

November reviews 2008

2008-12-16T23:18:00.000-08:00

33 Free Tools to Make Your Website Better
http://onehalfamazing.com/2008/11/33-free-tools-to-make-your-website-better/
http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/11/13/33-free-tools-to-make-your-website-better/
http://noelbellen.blogspot.com/2008/11/33-free-tools-to-make-your-website.html

Search Engine Journal
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/check-your-site-usability-with-these-fun-tools/8042/
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=95106

Web Resources Depot

5 Sitepoint - Ways to Get Usability Testing on the Cheap

DownloadTube: Heatmap Simulation With The Free Feng-GUI Web Based Service

Diva Geek Designs: YES! The best Webdesign Tools Online

Julius Design

Teletext is dead, Creative OverDose

SOAP joins the supported formats

2008-11-25T10:42:00.000-08:00

We are glad to announce that SOAP format joins the supported formats of Feng-GUI web services.

http://www.feng-gui.com/services/
http://www.feng-gui.com/services/soap.htm

coming up next, JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) ...

October 2008 reviews

2008-11-12T12:30:00.000-08:00

October 2008 reviews.
and Mashable web design toolbox.
http://mashable.com/2008/11/05/web-design-toolbox/

frankwatching.com

wwwhatsnew.com

desarrolloweb.com

www.webpagedesign.com.au

www.tecnologiadiaria.com/

thanks!

is your website ready for the 5 seconds attention span challenge

2008-11-04T13:17:00.000-08:00

After decades of TV, Radio, Magazines and now Internet, we find ourselves in a society overwhelmed by information begging for attention. As a result of that we have a world with an attention span now shorter than a goldfish’s. How is the media and specially the web facing that? And how can we take advantage on way the human mind works?

read the wonderful post by Mauricio Duque at snap2objects

Thanks!Mao

Feng-GUI review at KillerStartups

2008-10-31T01:45:00.000-07:00

Feng-GUI website got reviewed in KillerStartups blog

IPO? Get VC $? Be Bought?
feel free to vote and comment.

Optimizing AdSense using Feng-GUI heatmap

2008-09-24T22:49:00.000-07:00

Alex Barbadosa, frmo http://www.lessnau.com the AdSense blog, twits that

I changed the position of www.riojob.com.br Adsense on my CRT and jumped from 0.5% to 3.50%. Establish in-www.feng gui.com (Heat Map) evolving ...

optimize your AdSense location and style using Feng-GUI heatmap.

API documentation preview

2008-09-24T11:56:00.001-07:00

We recently posted a preliminary and small version of documentation for Feng-GUI Services API.
We are very eager to receive feedback from members of the Beta community as they access this documentation over the next several weeks so we can use that feedback to improve our first API version to be released in October.

The API documentation can be found at
http://service.feng-gui.com/api.htm

The API is implemented as XML over HTTP (XML-RPC).
Send an XML Request and receives an XML response.
The XML-RPC Server Endpoint URL is:
http://service.feng-gui.com/xmlrpc/api.ashx
The Server Endpoint also contains automatic documentation of the API.

The guest credentials are:
username:guest
password:guest

Right now, the service API methods are partially-functional and your images appears at Feng-GUI.com MRU list.

Feng-GUI Web API services

2008-08-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

Coming Soon ...
Over the last months we are working on a new platform that will enable you to use Feng-GUI attention and attraction technologies through web services.

Members of the Private Beta group will have access to the specifications draft of the API and benefit the option to ask for changes and modifications before we finish the implementation.

Feng-GUI open web Application Programming Interface (API for short) means that anyone (well, right now, only members of the Beta program) can write their own program to integrate Feng-GUI technologies and services in new and different ways. For example, you could automate usability testing, Optimize your Ad placement , create a Photoshop plugin, etc'.

The Photographer's Guide to the Eye

2008-07-10T04:47:00.001-07:00

What science is learning about how we see can help you take more compelling pictures.
If you are a photographer that wish to understand what stands behind Feng-GUI attention maps and how to use them. This article is for you.

Mark Mainz/courtesy of Getty Images and Global Action for Children

eye tracking

Feng-GUI attention heatmap

http://www.popphoto.com/popularphotographyfeatures/5422/the-photographers-guide-to-the-eye.html

Percentage of Web Page Text Read

2008-06-15T03:41:00.000-07:00

useit.com

on How Little Do Users Read?
by Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, May 6, 2008:

On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.

read the whole article at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/percent-text-read.html

Russia, Google, and the New World Order

2008-06-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

Dmitry Paranyushkin, co founder of Way to Russia wrote two great reviews on Feng-GUI while playing some conspiracy games with heatmaps.

Also, I've always wondered why the map of the world is made the way it is – America to the left, Russia to the right... After checking it out in Feng GUI I found out that there are three centers of power in this world, according to the map: USA, China, and Africa:

Google patents media layout analysis

2008-06-01T06:11:00.000-07:00

Google just published two patent applications. US2008/0107337 is “Methods and Systems for Analyzing Data in Media Material Having Layout” and US2008/0107338 is “Media Material Analysis of Continuing Article Portions”. You can view them at USPTO.

Both inventions, to which Google is the assignee, pertain to figuring out what’s important and what’s not on Web pages. Companies that scan hard copy and convert those images to machine-readable ASCII use some tricks but a great deal of brute force to figure out what’s information and what’s advertising or other dross.

thanks to Stephen Arnold for the information.

Brain Scanner Can Tell What You're Looking At

2008-06-01T02:03:00.000-07:00

Scientists have developed a computer model that predicts the brain patterns elicited by looking at different images -- a possible first step on the path to mind reading.

Image: University of California at Berkeley
read more at http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2008/03/mri_vision

Sergey Brin at GarageGeeks

2008-05-17T15:33:00.001-07:00

The GarageGeeks and Yossi Vardi invite you to a special garage party event: "GarageGeeks hosting Google"
Sergey Brin, Co-founder and President of Technology at Google,

And
Meir Brand / Country Director, Israel
Yoelle Maarek / Director of Haifa R&D Center
Yossi Matias / Director of Tel-Aviv R&D Center
Riki Drori / Country Marketing Manager, Israel

The event will take place on Thursday May 15th, 21:30, Garage HQ (Hapeled 40, Holon).

Reflections

http://thenextweb.org/2008/05/17/sergey-brin-about-the-israeli-start-up-scene-video/

http://hitech.themarker.com

http://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?did=1000342562&fid=594

http://www.nrg.co.il/online/16/ART1/734/327.html

http://news.walla.co.il/?w=//1282861

DisrupTV convention

2008-05-15T01:17:00.000-07:00

Feng-GUI for Videos will be demonstrate at DisrupTV convention (23 May). We will show how to predict people's attention in videos, commercials, and games.

Disrupt.TV is an un-conference intents to bring together Israeli and global Technology, content and creative talents that are taking part in creating the future of TV and media for sharing knowledge, exploring the opportunities and to spark new ideas about how TV and Video will change us and we will change TV.
It is aimed for people who are in the conjunction of Media, Content, Creative and Technology.

Contextual vs Behavior Targeting

2008-05-06T04:17:00.000-07:00

An Eye Tracking study designed and analyzed by Next Century Media was carried out by PreTesting and TACODA.
That study shows that Behavioral Targeting averages 17% more Ad Looks than Contextual Targeting, and this average increases to 54% more Ad Looks after the first exposure.
In other words, as frequency builds, the same ad increasingly gets filtered out in the Contextual environment, but apparently as a result of surprise, the level of Ad Looking stays up in Behavioral.

The first Eye Tracking study ever conducted comparing Behavioral Targeting to Contextual Targeting finds that, on average, the same ads receive +17% more Looks when seen in unrelated-content sites, than when seen in sites specializing in the sale of those types of products.

After the first exposure, this +17% advantage for Behavioral over Contextual Targeting increases dramatically to +54%.

The fact that Behavioral Targeting, unlike Contextual Targeting, tends to build with frequency, suggests that there is a Surprise effect and that it does not wear out, and because of this repeat Surprise effect, the ad is given more chances to engage the user.

you can view the full report at
http://www.tacoda.com/success/research.php

TACODA conducted primary research to identify the demographics and behaviors of online 'heavy clickers.'
Who are the "Natural Born Clickers" and what is "the Invisible Hand" ?

The invisible hand is a metaphor coined by the economist Adam Smith to illustrate how those who follow their individual self-interests inadvertently stimulate the economy and assist society as a whole. There has been an invisible hand (or set of hands) that through self-interest have guided the development of online advertising, stimulated it through their innate curiosity and sometimes impulsive natures. This is the tale of a group of people who have had a profound impact on our lives as media planners and buyers. We've never known who they are or where they come from. We just knew that they were there, invisible, hiding within the numbers that make up our campaign report

you can view the video presentation and download the report at
http://www.tacoda.com/success/research.php

KinnerNet 2008 personal contributions

2008-04-22T07:56:00.000-07:00

By Rafael Mizrahi, Feng-GUI

KinnerNet Un-Convention is always a blast. and this year it was an explosion of geeks, technologies, art, food, humor … you name it.

I will not be able to describe (like last KinnerNet 2007 review I did with the blog WMMNA) in one small post, everything that happened this year. So, please accept my apologies, while I am only sharing my own contribution to this art-tech frenzy.

As an artificial vision explorer at Feng-GUI and a GarageGeeks member, I was invited to KinnerNet2008, and here is my contribution.

WiiMan SuperHero

http://wiimansuperhero.blogspot.com/

WiiMan and DR. Yossi Vardi

WiiMan the Super Hero is a full action figure costume of a super hero that functions as a Nintendo Wii remote.
Having trouble playing Wii? WiiMan to the rescue.
This project combines Gaming, Technology and Useless Activity to the extreme.

The GarageGeeks along with Yael Hertzog built this custom that acts as a fully functional Nintendo WiiMote remote with buttons, Bluetooth, accelerometers, and an IR cam.

Gadgethon

Under the category of Gadget I bought, I showed:

Wearable social bookmarking accessories made by Limor Fried, AKA Lady Ada,

Digg Button , MiniPOV

Under the category of Gadget I made myself, I showed:

* React-a-Baby - A collaborative electronic music instrument for babies

* iLed - Wearable party led lights glasses which flickers between 8-16 Hz and amplitude is based on a microphone input. Hallucinogen state of mind, not included.

KinnerNet Business Card

Hagai Cohen requested my programming skills creating a souvenir for KinnerNet 2008 participants. A business card with a stretched font that is readable only when you tilt the card.

Dove Shit Dove

The garagegeeks built a huge Dove that sense if someone is underneath it and crap a small spit of Dove soap on him. I helped with the sound effects.

MAKE /Face workshop

A workshop conducted by Michael Shiloh (MakingThings, MAKE magazine and OpenMoko) and Hanoch Piven (www.pivenworld.com) I built this Fakir’s hours made out of computer parts.

Skateboard Session

Oren Zuckerman from IDC Herzelia and MIT's Media Lab organized a spontaneous Skateboard session.

It turned into an old dogs session, of myself, Nir Ofir (BlogTV), Meir Brand (Google Israel GM), Ohad PressMan (3D3R) and Gary Shainberg (British Telecom CTO) on the SegWay

Feng-GUI at CIL2008

2008-04-08T03:57:00.000-07:00

Feng-GUI will be presented at CIL2008 the 23rd annual Computers in Libraries — the most comprehensive North American conference and exhibition on all aspects of library & information delivery technology.
Although the tools and technology available to libraries & information services have changed over the years, the excellent quality and range of both topics and speakers at Computers in Libraries 2008 remain the same.

http://www.infotoday.com/cil2008/

Feng-GUI and a list of web tools including Flickr Photo badge and Photoshop Express will be presented by Speakers: Darlene Fichter & Frank Cervone
In Session B104 – Widgets, Tools, & Doodads for Library Webmasters
3:15 PM – 4:00 PM

Here is the full list of web tools
http://eclecticlibrarian.net/blog/2008/04/cil-2008-widgets-tools-doodads-for-library-webmasters/

Thanks to Frank Cervone, Darlene Fichter, Anna Creech for the information, and to Steve Campion for the photo.

here is the presentation

| View | Upload your own

March08 reviews links

2008-03-27T13:05:00.000-07:00

Here is a partial list of Feng-GUI reviews during March 2008

http://www.core77.com/blog/technology/fenggui_heat_maps_show_you_whether_your_website_is_hot_or_not_9347.asp
http://www.markpascua.com/2008/03/26/feng-gui-heatmap-what-are-people-look-at/
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/artificial-intelligence-rates-your-website-feng-gui
http://www.bloggingtips.com/2008/03/17/create-a-heat-map-of-your-blog/

http://www.milliondollarexperiment.ca/heat-map-your-website
http://blog.perfectomania.com/personal/feng-gui-fenshuj-dlya-interfejsov/
http://blog-de.webedition.de/2008/02/benutzeraufmerksamkeit-pruefen-und.html
http://muiomuio.net/feng-gui-free-heatmap/
http://www.tou.ch/blog/2008/03/18/feng-gui-fur-die-website/
http://caoepulgas.blogspot.com/2008/03/feng-gui.html
http://blogenserio.com/2008/03/mapas-de-calor-8-casos/
http://www.steinis.ch/index.php/2008/03/18/heat-map-fur-deine-website/

http://oink.elrellano.com/index.php?c=%DAtiles+webmaster
http://eydryan.com/2008/03/20/seo-fun-heatmaps-eye-tracking-and-a-wordpress-plugin/
http://ideabookmarks.blogspot.com/2008/03/fenggui.html
http://iith096.blogspot.com/2008/03/feng-gui-feng-shui-for-graphic-user.html
http://www.msblog.de/2008/03/23/feng-gui-service/
http://www.learnbydoing.org/?p=121
http://www.happydude.co.uk/?p=379

Core77 Attack

2008-03-25T14:08:00.000-07:00

We are under attack, Thanks to Core77 the Design blog:)

Thank you Arnold Van Bezooyen for sharing Feng-GUI with your readers.

view the post and comments at Core77

Feng-GUI at CrunchBase

2008-03-16T01:41:00.000-07:00

CrunchBase Information

Feng-GUI

Information provided by CrunchBase

The Best Tools for Visualization

2008-03-14T13:35:00.000-07:00

ReadWriteWeb published a list of "Best Tools for Visualization"
great applications. sweet animations
and.. ohh.. BTW.. Feng-GUI is there too :)
Thank you Sarah Perez!

Latests reviews about Feng-GUI Feb2008

2008-03-12T05:44:00.000-07:00

Here are some latest Feb.2008 reviews about Feng-GUI from all over the web.
Thank you all.
Feng-GUI Lab.

FutureLab - Marketing & Strategy Innovation Blog

FireFly SEO

Neuromarketing - Where Brain Science and Marketing Meet

Koen Delvaux

concepteur redacteur

The Analytics Guru

Brian Kane - Artist

Ohad Pressman

nortypig - an experiential adventure

Read Write Web

James Breeze in Eye tracking

35-50 people for valid eye tracking

2008-03-04T01:15:00.000-08:00

Mihkel Jäätma, an Objective Digital partner from Realeyes.it, has created this compelling example that shows you need 35-50 people to draw valid conclusions from eye tracking. However, he holds that useful information can be gained from fewer participants.

| Upload your own

Thanks to James Breeze for the information.

Feng-GUI Dashboard Revealed

2008-02-18T08:05:00.000-08:00

here is a sneak preview of the next version of Feng-GUI

stay tuned ...

Web Vision explained by StomperNet

2008-02-12T07:18:00.000-08:00

StomperNet released a bunch of great videos about Web Vision describing how do we See the web while surfing.

"What web designers should know about human vision! Not just eye tracking, but eye gaze simulation and an interactive experiment to help you get it."

for example, take a look at http://youtube.com/watch?v=-SCtjwK8PAY

watch all the videos at http://youtube.com/user/stompernet

They also provide a free (Adobe AIR based) tool called Scrutinizer that offers a simulation of the human visual system. Specifically, it illustrates the distinction between foveal and peripheral vision in visual acuity and color perception.

ReadWriteWeb attack

2008-02-12T01:37:00.000-08:00

We are under attack, Thanks to ReadWriteWeb :)

"But Feng-GUI doesn’t use real eye tracking, which would require that humans look at each object being measured and would hardly scale very well. Instead, the site uses an algorithm that attempts to guess what a real human would be most likely to look at."

read the full story at ReadWriteWeb
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/feng-gui_visual_attention_heatmaps.php

DLD 2008 - Digital gets Physical and Social

2008-01-30T04:15:00.000-08:00

Our made man, Ohad Eder Pressman reached to Speaker level at DLD* 2008, lecturing about connecting the Physical and Digital worlds.

Digital gets Physical session include Kati London, Julian Bleecker (NearFuture), Neri Oxman, Ohad Eder-Pressman and hosted by Kevin Slavin

watch the full video at sevenload

http://de.sevenload.com/videos/kHp4S78/DLD08-Day-3-Digital-gets-physical/sliderPage/2

DLD conference is a blast of sharing ideas, thoughts and vision.
It was a great opportunity to meet GarageGeeks friends from all over the world:

Pabls Holman the international hacker, Digital Dan Dubno , check out their great presentation at DLD*

http://en.sevenload.com/videos/bAoG482/DLD08-Day-2-Educate-experiment/sliderPage/2

JB Jean-Baptiste Labrune who creates our next generation of interfaces, Régine Debatty editor of the art/tech blog http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com

Michael Reinboth from Compost records, Munich, kindly had a meeting with us and we discussed about various ways to integrate the GarageGeeks activities with the music industry in Germany.

Music Workshop - DIY Toy Music Controllers

2008-01-20T04:31:00.000-08:00

At this music workshop, we are creating modified toys music controllers that send their MIDI or Audio information to central audio and visual stations.

Reflections from this workshop

photos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rafael_mizrahi/sets/72157603505744930/

videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4z5LKpeLZU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ri4vpqTnP9A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd1H2T5uUqQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5raa-XiAFAo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S42jX6-n9K4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd1H2T5uUqQ

Date: 3 January 2008
Hosts: Rafael Mizrahi, Eyal ‘Person’ Sachar and Shira Miasnik

Schedule19:00 Garage Open: Prepare your "Basta".
20:00 Workshop agenda: Enough with Baby Einstein, its Baby Clubber time.
20:30 workshop starts

Who should come?
* Experienced music technicians and interactive designer.
* The event is open for everyone. You can join others (see /write in the wiki http://wiki.garagegeeks.org) by helping take apart and stuff the musical toys with gadgets.

The Garage will be wired with MIDI, and Audio cables. Each station can choose from several methods of communication to the central stations Hub. Your Toy output can be connected to the central stations or to your Laptop, and from there, to the central stations.

Ingredients: bring one or more of the followings:

A Toy (or some device that you wish to convert into a controller)

Sensors http://www.sensorwiki.org/index.php/Sensors

Sensor interface board http://www.sensorwiki.org/index.php/Sensor_interfaces

Parts - Assorted switches, potentiometers and other parts
http://www.anti-theory.com/soundart/circuitbend/cb04.html

Laptop

Cables:MIDI, LAN, Audio and converter accessories.

Tools: soldering iron, glue, etc’
http://www.anti-theory.com/soundart/circuitbend/cb03.html

USB Keyboard to take apart.

How to participate with low budget:
Here is a list of ingredients to build a Music Toy Controller for anyone who wish to participate but is not so skilled or equipped. A Toy wired with Keys from a USB keyboard sending keystrokes to a utility (MouseTrap) which translates them into MIDI messages, mapped by MIDI-OX into Ableton Live.
* Toy
* USB Keyboard to take apart (also a mouse can be used).
* Laptop
* Ableton Live Demo http://www.ableton.com
* MIDI utilities:
** Keyboard/Mouse to MIDI: MouseTrap http://www.humatic.de/htools/MouseTrap.htm
** MIDI virtual device: MIDI-OX http://www.midiox.com/?http://www.midiox.com/moxdown.htm
* switches, knobs, sliders to hook on the Toy
* wires, solder, glue gun.
* anything else you wish to do with your lovely musical Toy.

Examples of participation (there can be more variations):

Toy+MIDI board->central station.

Toy+USB Keyboard->laptop->MIDI device or Audio->central station.

Toy+phidgets->laptop->Audio->central station.

Toy->laptop->MAX/MSP with MIDI module->MIDI device->central station.

Toy+ Arduino with MIDI module->laptop or central station.

Recommended boards:

MIDISense (MIDI) http://www.ladyada.net/make/midisense

MIDITron (MIDI) http://eroktronix.com

Arduino (Multi Purpose board USB) http://www.arduino.cc

Phidgets (Sensors to USB) http://www.phidgets.com/index.php?module=pncommerce&func=itemview&IID=85

Pocket Electronic (MIDI) http://www.doepfer.de/pe.htm

Make Controller Kit (USB and OSC) http://www.makingthings.com/products/KIT-MAKE-CTRL

notes: Don’t buy a board without understanding what you are buying and how to operate it.
The board kits are pretty easy to build, but prepare them at home because it takes several hours to assemble a 50$ kit.

Home Preparations:

Get a Toy, disassemble it at home and look for ways to attach the sensors or potentiometers onto it.

Decide how the toy will function? (MIDI, USB, Phidget, OSC, etc')

Prepare your board and test it with the sensors or potentiometers.

A handful of parts (knobs, slides, etc') that you can hook on the toy, bring extra, maybe others can use them.
tour some electronic shops for such parts, or just take them from electronic junk you still didn't throw away.

Links

List of electronic shops which also sell sensors http://www.garagegeeks.org/blog/?p=78

List of music shops that sell music instruments http://www.act.co.il/index.php?action=shops

Reading material

MIDI
Essential MIDI toolbox
Use to monitor midi messages, send midi from your keyboard, map midi devices and more.
MIDI-OX
http://www.midiox.com/?http://www.midiox.com/moxdown.htm
MIDI-Yoke
http://www.midiox.com/index.htm?http://www.midiox.com/myoke.htm

OSC – Open Sound Control
OSC is meant to supersede the MIDI While MIDI requires a MIDI USB device, OSC communicate via a standard home or studio network (TCP/IP, Ethernet) or via the internet.

http://opensoundcontrol.org
http://www.cnmat.berkeley.edu/OpenSoundControl
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSound_Control

OSC to MIDI utilities
OCCAM (MAC OS) http://www.mat.ucsb.edu/~c.ramakr/illposed/occam.html
OSCulator (MAC OS) http://www.osculator.net/wiki

USB keyboard or Mouse to MIDI or OSC

MouseTrap - MouseTrap lets mouse and keyboard act as general purpose Midi / OSC control hardware.
http://www.humatic.de/htools/MouseTrap.htm

More Links for Muse

http://www.act.co.il
http://createdigitalmusic.com
http://createdigitalmotion.com

Comparing Eye and Mouse tracking with Computational Attention

2008-01-13T11:03:00.000-08:00

Matei Mancas, PhD focus his research at the Faculty of Engineering, Mons, Belgium (FPMs) on Computational Attention.
His research demonstrates several interesting applications that employ computational attention.
The proposed applications are from various areas such as signal processing, data optimization etc'
Matei Mancas Computational Attention page

Matei also developed with two of his students Simon Wallerand and Fre'de'ric Lavis, a mouse-tracking technique he used as a a validation tool for his thesis.
You can participate online in his research by adding your own mouse (that follows your eyes) movements to the research results.
You can upload your images and get the mouse-tracking results on these images. You may also upload entire sets of specific images and than ask for the top-down model to the website administrator.

Exploring human eye behaviour using a model of visual attention

2008-01-10T01:07:00.000-08:00

Oyewole Oyekoya and Fred Stentiford presented at the 17th International Conference on Pattern Recognition (ICPR) 2004:

It is natural in a visual search to look at any object that is similar to the target so that it can be recognized and a decision made to end the search. Eye tracking technology offers an intimate and immediate way of interpreting users' behaviors to guide a computer search through large image databases.

This work describes experiments carried out to explore the relationship between gaze behavior and a visual attention model that identifies regions of interest in image data.
Results show that there is a difference in behavior on images that do and do not contain a clear region of interest.

the rest of the article at ieee

Artists look different

2007-12-17T06:34:00.000-08:00

When doing Eye-Tracking survey, don't include artists, they may change the results by 20%.

A Norwegian study, that showed 16 pictures to both trained and untrained artists used eye-tracking software to show that not only do they see the world differently when drawing it, they also see differently when studying it.”

Read the full story at "Cognitive Daily":
http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2007/03/artists_look_different.php

GuitarHeroNoid at LeWeb3 France

2007-12-14T00:09:00.000-08:00

Kathy brooks from Six Apart and Loic Le Meur invited the GuitarHeroNoid to perform at LeWeb3 conference France.
Our man Tal Chalozin, the heronoid Puppeteer, went there and presented the garageGeeks activities.

Here is a video of the show

GuitarHeroNoid v2 at VON 2007 Boston

2007-12-05T01:14:00.000-08:00

Mr Jeff Pulver invited the human-size robot playing guitar hero aka the GuitarHeroNoid to preform in VON Boston 2007 (Video Over the Net) conference in Boston.

Tal Chalozin and Yuval Tal have improved the robot version 2, adding some more features like the Controller-Controller and the Penis Guitar Holder.

Pictures from VON

Tarazi Design Studio: Per Capita

2007-11-08T03:18:00.000-08:00

Garanti Gallery Istanbul is proudly be announcing the exhibition on the works of Israeli industrial product designer Ezri Tarazi entitled "TARAZI DESIGN STUDIO: PER-CAPITA" between 23 October and 15 December 2007.

Feng-GUI lab created the video installation at "Per-Capita" that traces the signs placed on the head of each person visiting the exhibition. The visitors wear over their heads a piece of cloth marked by a red routing cross.
A tracking camera 'identifies' the sign, tracks it down and puts a routing cross on it. By screening the "tracking map" on the gallery wall, the background images constantly shift producing a different context for each situation. In one situation the exhibition visitors become targets of targeted killing, and in the other situation they are individuals in a video game.

PER-CAPITA places in front of the visitor/the participant in the exhibition futuristic, intriguing questions raised by the twentieth century. Will nationality keep its presence and relevance? Will the planet "raft" be able to go on carrying its inhabitants? What sort of relevance will hierarchy have? What power reservoirs will be required in order to connect with the different? Will Jerusalem stay united?
Will religiosity become a destructive or productive factor? Where will the wells of salvation come from?

Per Capita review at Designophy

from Ezri Tarazi blog:

On the opening moments of my exhibiting PER CAPITA in Istanbul at the Garanti Gallery, we found ourselves in the midst of a huge demonstration against TEROR.
Few days before the opening 17 people were killed on the east side of Turkey by the PKK, the Kurdish organization. Just in front of the gallery, thousand of people were
marching on the Istiklal road, the main street of Istanbul.

I was lecturing on that day at the Istanbul Technical University about the concept of Realism and Reality Design. I did not imagine that it will become so expressive. We had the HEART 'flags' from the interactive installation on the show, so we took them and waved with them on the street. People were responded to it in consent. I assume they have accepted it as a peculiar way to demonstrate the superfluous use of terror and bloodshed in the world.

The RED of the HEART 'flags' were exactly the same RED of the Turkish flag. At the heart of the gallery we showed 'crowded', the sofa made of sections of national flags. It had an interesting inter locution with the flags and loud voices out side of the gallery.

Per Capita became at once from a philosophical overview to a REALITY DESIGN event mixing with the powers of people out on the streets of Istanbul.

Internet users quick to judge

2007-10-22T16:14:00.000-07:00

By Judy Skatssoon for Science Online

Internet users can take just one-twentieth of a second to decide whether they like the look of a website, researchers say.

Dr Gitte Lindgaard and colleagues from Carleton University in Ottawa flashed up websites for 50 milliseconds and asked participants to rate them for visual appeal.

When they repeated the exercise after a longer viewing period, the participants' ratings were consistent.

"Visual appeal can be assessed within 50 milliseconds, suggesting that web designers have about 50 milliseconds to make a good impression,"

the Canadians report in the journal Behaviour & Information Technology.

Associate Professor of psychology Bill von Hippel, from the University of New South Wales, says it takes about 50 milliseconds to read one word, making this a "stunningly remarkable" timeframe in which to process the complex stimuli on a website.

"It's quite remarkable that people do it that fast and that it holds up in their later judgement," he said.

"This may be because we have an affective or emotional system that [works] independently of our cognitive system."

He says that in evolutionary terms, this ability helped us respond rapidly to dangerous situations.

full article at ABC News

SIFT is the core of PhotoSynth

2007-10-03T02:51:00.000-07:00

PhotoSynth underlying "magic" is using SIFT (Scale Invariant Feature Transform) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale-invariant_feature_transform

quoting Seitz
"We use a feature-matching technique called SIFT, developed by David Lowe at the University of British Columbia, that handles very significant differences in lighting, shading, weather, scale, and so forth,"
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/txt/archive/?postID=1454

David Lowe's Autostitch project.
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~lowe/home.html
http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~mbrown/autostitch/autostitch.html

more SIFT implementations and source code

Tangible Kabuki at GeekCon 2007

2007-09-11T07:02:00.001-07:00

This was Feng-GUI GeekCon2007 project. Thanks to:
Project members: Rafael Mizrahi, Dani Vardi, Tal Yaniv and Eyal "Person" Shachar.
Performers: Dror Gill, Ayelet Yagil, Zvi Devir and Jeff Pulver.
Photographers: Yaniv Golan and Alex Sirota.

1. The TangibLaptop is a collaborative electronic music instrument with a laptop tangible multi-touch interface built by the GarageGeeks (Rafael Mizrahi, Ohad Pressman and Eyal "Person"). inspired by the reactable http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReacTable

2. The GeekCon un-convention get-together is a creative gathering happening with a goal to form a critical mass of technically oriented creative talented people that will think up, create and deploy ideas. Or it’s a short summer camp for geeks… Take your pick.

1+2=3. Taking it one step further, instead of using physical small hand size objects, YOU will be the players in a musical part by wearing masks. Together, we create a musical part where you can take part by wearing fiducial masks detected by the Tangible laptop.

Reflections:
More Tangible Kabuki images at Flikr tagged with "Tangible Kabuki"

More GeekCon 2007 images at Flikr tagged with geekcon2007

Banner Blindness by Dr. Jakob Nielsen

2007-08-28T01:14:00.000-07:00

An article by Dr. Jakob Nielsen from http://www.useit.com

The most prominent result from the new eyetracking studies is not actually new. We simply confirmed for the umpteenth time that banner blindness is real. Users almost never look at anything that looks like an advertisement, whether or not it's actually an ad.

Users rarely look at display advertisements on websites. Of the four design elements that do attract a few ad fixations, one is unethical and reduces the value of advertising networks.

read the full article...

website is under attack

2007-08-26T14:24:00.000-07:00

The website is under attack since 26/8 21:30 and the service is unavailable.
Hope to return soon while increasing our scalability.

Thank you for your interest in Feng-GUI.

Feng-GUI at The 40 coolest free applications around

2007-08-26T06:17:00.000-07:00

Seopher: reviewing and discussing Linux, internet marketing and blogging,
recommends Feng-GUI ViewFinder heatmap service in a list of 40 cool and free applications.

http://seopher.com/articles/the_40_coolest_free_applications_around

thanks Seopher!

Feng-GUI at Israel NRG newspaper

2007-08-26T06:06:00.001-07:00

Feng-GUI at Israel NRG newspaper
http://www.nrg.co.il/online/10/ART1/614/158.html

thanks to Ophir Hechter for the news.

Feature integration theory

2007-08-09T03:11:00.000-07:00

The most influential psychological models of human visual attention.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feature_integration_theory

Issues of Saliency and Recognition in the Search for Web Page Bookmarks

2007-08-07T01:05:00.000-07:00

Alex has published his great Masters Thesis on:
"Issues of Saliency and Recognition in the Search for Web Page Bookmarks"

to provide empirically-determined guidelines for web producers on how to title pages in order to optimise the recognition of bookmarks by users, and to increase the rate of revisitation as a result.

Free alternative to Eye Tracking

2007-07-27T09:21:00.000-07:00

The latest issue of http://www.softwareceo.com (July 2007) had an article about "Heat maps for better web design, marketing benchmarks, and a dead software CEO".
Feng-GUI heatmap service was recommended as a free tool for simulating the movement of visitor's eyes on a web page.

here is the article:
http://www.softwareceo.com/attachments/fenggui/tip072407.php

Thank you SoftwareCEO !

Feng-GUI service upgrade

2007-07-20T23:21:00.000-07:00

We are in the process of upgrading Feng-GUI service.
During this time you might experience some difficulties generating a heatmap for some websites.
As an alternative you can create a screen capture of the website and upload the image using the browse button.

Google Images Search for faces

2007-07-08T14:08:00.000-07:00

Google didn't buy riya and bought neven vision adding a face recognition to the Images Search service.
For example you can search for Paris in general
or search for Paris Hilton
Just add the imgtype=face to the search query.

Napolux top 10 for web designers

2007-06-24T13:55:00.000-07:00

We wish to thank Napolux.com which rated Feng-GUI FireFox extension at the top 10 free and open source tools for web designers.

http://www.napolux.com/2007/05/21/10-tools-gratuiti-eo-opensource-per-il-webdesign